The present invention relates to, an automotive vehicle, an automotive front door moving structure and an automotive front door window glass lowering structure which are adapted to effectively absorb an impact applied to a front pillar.
There is known an automotive front pillar provided with an impact absorbing structure for reducing an impact generated by an object coming into collision with the front pillar of an automotive vehicle through its deformation.
For example, Japanese Patent Unexamined Publiation No. Hei.9-39833 entitled an "automotive front pillar" describes such an automotive impact absorbing structure. This technology will be described below with reference to FIG. 18, which corresponds to FIG. 2 of the original publication. Note that new reference numbers will be used in the description
FIG. 18 is a cross-sectional view of the prior art automotive front pillar. A front pillar 200 comprises a pillar main body 203 formed into a tube-like body by joining a pillar inner 201 with a pillar outer 202 and a substantially U-shaped impact absorbing panel 204 acting to absorb an impact is attached to the front face of the pillar main body 203 with an opening side thereof being oriented toward the pillar main body 203.
Here, reference numeral 206 is a resin garnish, reference numeral 207 a windshield, reference numeral 208 a sealant, reference numeral 211 a window sash or window frame, reference numerals 212, 213 weatherstrips and reference numeral 214 a front door windowpane or window glass. Note that the weatherstrip 213 and the window glass 214 are purposively added to the original drawing for the sake of explanation.
Referring to FIG. 19, the function of the front pillar 200 will be described.
FIG. 19 is a functional diagram for explaining the function of the prior art front pillar.
When an object C collides against the front pillar 200 from the front of a vehicle, an external force is applied to the impact absorbing panel 204 via the resin garnish 206, whereby the impact absorbing panel 204 is deformed.
This reduces an impact force that is to be transmitted to the pillar main body 203, but, for example, in the event that the impact absorbing panel 204 interferes with the window frame 211 while being deformed, the impact absorbing panel 204 is prevented from being deformed further.
As a result of this, it is conceived that the impact force applied to the impact absorbing panel 204 is not fully absorbed, whereby the impact is transmitted to the pillar main body 203 and the window frame 211.
Additionally, with a door having no window sash or a so-called "frame-less" window, the deformation of the impact absorbing panel 204 is prevented similarly by a window glass (which corresponds to the windowpane 214), and therefore it is predicted that the impact is transmitted to the window glass of the door.